1. Technical Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method of cancer treatment by intrapelvic perfusion with a cancer therapeutic agent, comprising administering at least one of an anticancer agent, a radioisotope, a gene for gene therapy, a DNA molecule for gene therapy, RNA molecule for gene therapy and a cell for gene therapy to and recovering from an advanced cancer tissue site within the pelvis and to an apparatus for intrapelvic perfusion with a cancer therapeutic agent.
2. Prior Art
In the art, upon detection or diagnosis of early cancer in the bladder, uterus, lymph node or other tissues located within the pelvis, surgical procedures have been performed as a reliable method of short-term treatment thereof.
However, in cases where doubt remains even after surgical treatment as to residual tumor (cancer) tissues, radiation therapy and/or immunotherapy may be given postoperatively in certain instances. Further, in cases where the cancer is in such an advanced stage that no operative procedure can be applied, for example in the advanced metastatic stage, cancer chemotherapy comprising administering an anticancer agent is used in combination with surgical procedures.
In cancer chemotherapy, the technique of anticancer agent perfusion has been employed which comprises extracorporeally circulating an anticancer agent using an extracorporeal blood circulation device or system, as reported by Peter S. Turk, James F. Belliveau, et al. (Archives of Surgery vol. 128, May 1993).
In anticancer agent perfusion therapy, two balloon catheters are indwelled in an aorta and a cava, respectively. They are inflated for blocking the vessels to thereby block the blood flow while the blood flow in the lower limbs is blocked by means of tourniquets. An anticancer agent-containing fluid is fed to the thus-formed closed region and discharged therefrom continuously for 30 to 40 minutes using an extracorporeal blood circulation device.
The above therapeutic method using an anticancer agent has made it possible to erase tumors or prevent them from growing and/or alleviate the symptoms caused by tumors.
In the conventional anticancer agent perfusion therapy, the volume of the anticancer agent-containing fluid fed into the aorta by an extracorporeal blood circulation device and the volume of the blood-containing body fluid discharged through the cava by the same device are equal to each other.
However, among the aorta and cava, those occurring within the pelvis, in particular, have a number of developed collateral routes for blood circulation. Therefore, when the feeding rate and discharge rate are equal to each other, the venous pressure in the pelvic circulation is higher than that in the systemic circulation, as a result, there arises the problem that the anticancer agent-containing fluid may readily leak out through the collateral blood vessels into blood flow routes occurring outside the pelvis, hence into the whole body.
Though the gene therapy for cancer has recently been performed, a therapeutic method of effectively sending a gene, a DNA molecule, a RNA molecule, a cell, and a radioisotope for cancer gene therapy to the tumor has been expected.